Grant Park Symphony Putting Pieces Together On Eclectic Summer

Series

March 09, 1986|By John von Rhein, Music critic.

Putting together any concert series is very much like assembling an intricate jigsaw puzzle. At Grant Park it is often how the pieces of the puzzle interlock that gives the summer programs their special character.

Take, for example, the 37 free concerts that the Grant Park Symphony will present during its 52d season beginning June 21 at the Petrillo Music Shell.

The opening weekend, June 21-22, will have a Shakespearean flavor. A cast of local actors will present a semistaged production of ``A Midsummer Night`s Dream`` under the direction of Yuri Rasovsky. Integrated with the play will be a note-complete performance of the Mendelssohn incidental music, with vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra under Hugh Wolff. The program is being given in cooperation with National Radio Theatre of Chicago.

The following week will be dominated by the appearances of composer-pianist William Bolcom and his wife, singer Joan Morris.

Morris will be one of numerous vocal soloists taking part in Bolcom`s huge orchestral song-cycle based on William Blake poems, ``Songs of Innocence and Experience,`` which will receive its first professional performance in the United States June 28-29 at Grant Park. The 2 1/2-hour work is said to be a highly eclectic mixture of classical art song, rock, jazz, folk and other musical idioms. ``Songs of Innocence and Experience`` had its highly acclaimed world premiere in Stuttgart in 1983.

Morris and Bolcom begin their residency June 25 and 27 with a pops concert conducted by Newton Wayland. The following week will bring three other pops programs: A ``Taste of Chicago`` bill with folksinger Bonnie Koloc, July 2; a John Philip Sousa band concert with Keith Brion, July 3; and an Independence Day patriotic program conducted by David Amram, July 4.

Christopher Lyndon Gee, a young English conductor now working in Australia, will make his Grant Park debut on July 9 and 11. The program, with Robert Levin as piano soloist, holds works by Copland, Liszt and Shostakovich. Choral maestro Thomas Peck will bring his Grant Park Symphony Chorus to the fore July 12-13 in an agenda consisting of Verdi`s ``Four Sacred Pieces,`` Vaughan Williams` ``Serenade to Music`` and the Durufle Requiem.

Another newcomer to Chicago, Claus Peter Flor, will take charge of two programs, a Viennese night on July 16 and 18, and a concert of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss on July 19-20. Soprano Erie Mills is the soloist on the second program. Flor is music director of the Berlin Symphony. On July 23 and 25, English conductor Nicholas McGegan, music director of Berkeley`s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and a noted specialist in early music, will conduct a complete performance of Handel`s ``Water Music.`` Also scheduled is the Mozart Bassoon Concerto, with Milan Turkovic as soloist.

Music by American black composers Ulysses Kay and William Grant Still makes up conductor Paul Freeman`s program July 26-27, with Gita Karasik as piano soloist.

The following week of concerts is made special by the return of former Grant Park principal conductor Leonard Slatkin. Featured work of Slatkin`s program July 30 and Aug. 1 is the complete ``Billy the Kid`` ballet music of Copland. Emile Naumoff, a young Bulgarian pianist, will make his Music Shell debut. On Aug. 2-3 Slatkin will couple a Spohr symphony with Orff`s scenic cantata, ``Carmina Burana.``

Conductor Lee Schaenen will bring the young singers of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists back to Grant Park for a concert version of the Johann Strauss confection, ``Vienna Life`` (``Wiener Blut``), sung in English on Aug. 6 and 8. Rounding out the week is a pops concert by trumpeters Jeff Tyzik and Allen Vizzutti, Aug. 9 and 10.

Beginning a week of French repertoire Aug. 13 and 15 is conductor Paul Strauss. Soloist will be Yuli Turovsky, playing cello concertos by Honegger and Milhaud. Completing the program are works by Dukas, Debussy and Roussel.

Choral buffs might circle the dates of Aug. 16-17, for it is that weekend when Robert Shaw will return to Grant Park. The eminent choral conductor will present Berlioz`s Requiem, the same work that he recorded in Atlanta and that recently earned him a Grammy award.

The final four concerts of the season will be directed by Zdenek Macal, principal conductor of the Grant Park orchestra. On Aug. 20 and 22 Miriam Fried will play the Dvorak Violin concerto. The summer finale, Aug. 23-24, will be an all-Beethoven program featuring the Fourth Piano Concerto with soloist Malcolm Frager.